Tobias Abel, Paintings and Wall Drawings, Galerie Johann Widauer, Innsbruck 2014

In the current exhibition of Galerie Widauer, Tobias Abel presents works that have emerged as a logical continuation of his artistic concept over recent years and that consistently reflect the relationship between color and construction.

On the one hand, Abel shows a wall drawing from 2013 in which he subtly contrasts a matt yellow surface with fine silver-colored lines at regular intervals. The wall drawing takes up space, meaning that the pictorial character is abandoned in favor of questioning the relationship between surface and space. The iridescence of the silver oil crayon breaks the evenness of the vertical, thin lines. The result is an all-over structure that defines the wall and space with minimal means. Depending on the position of the viewer, the light of the silver color refracts at different points. The delicate color structure of the lines and the bright, soft color of the surface make the room seem to float.

The ten models in the small space show how different these constructions can be: in differentiated color gradations with contrasting shiny lines in oil crayon, they are possibilities of a constructive and minimalist oriented conception. In view of the intention to realize these works as expansive installations – white walls and gray floors are spatially present – the models are, as it were, serial implementations of the basic artistic idea of a harmonious counterpoint between surface and linework, and thus the various gradations of graphic color contrasts between gray, black, and white with lines in silver, gold or copper are particularly impressive as thoroughly independent works.

Another possibility of a composition of vertical lines is the drawings of Tobias Abel. These drawings are horizontal formats, 50 x 65 cm, with oil crayon on vellum paper. Here, the attraction is due to the subtle contrast between the shiny lines and the fine structure of the vellum paper. It is a smooth, evenly structured paper, whose lively surface harmonizes beautifully with the color-drawn fine lines. Here, the subtle contrast between the matt colored surface plane and the gloss of the lines in broken shades also becomes visible.

Opposite this is a wall installation that differs dynamically from the wall drawing as a constructive positing in space. Here, Abel subjects the relationship between form and color. The work comprises a slightly shorter horizontal body of color in acrylic on linen, which finds its continuation and at the same time its counterpoint in a longer horizontal color bar on the right side of the wall. It is about the relationship of the two forms, whose natural linen ground makes the color on the one hand less opaque, and the application of paint, which in the shorter piece is purely horizontal, while the color plane to the right is defined differently in its structure by vertical brushstrokes. The two bodies of color determine and define the space that surrounds them in a very intensive way.

All of Abel’s works share a radically constructive concept. The individual work is an expression of an artistic conception intended for subtle nuances and delicate gradations. In its unique shape and color it is a work of art in its own rights.

Text: Gaby Gappmayr